|
Poster:
|
light into ashes |
Date:
|
February 16, 2013 07:53:15am |
|
Forum:
|
GratefulDead
|
Subject:
|
Re: Was Jerry a Lazy Songwriter? |
Actually, Weir is way over-represented on your list...7 or 8 of those songs should be stricken from the list since the Dead never played them, or they're duplicates.
Nonetheless, Garcia was a lazy & indifferent songwriter - for the second half of the Dead's career. As he said, he'd rather toss cards in a hat than write songs. Almost all his classic GD songs were written in a 10-year period, from 1967 to 1977.
From '77 to '95, Garcia wrote about twenty songs for the Dead.
But he was still outpacing Weir, who wrote about 12 Dead songs in that period. The thing with Weir was that he wasn't lazy, but he was a slow composer who sometimes took years to finish a song, and not a "natural" songwriter at all. So no, Weir never took over the songwriting duties.
This post was modified by light into ashes on 2013-02-16 15:53:15
|
Poster:
|
unclejohn52 |
Date:
|
February 16, 2013 09:35:50am |
|
Forum:
|
GratefulDead
|
Subject:
|
Re: Was Jerry a Lazy Songwriter? |
I rest my case, your honor.
|
Poster:
|
AltheaRose |
Date:
|
February 16, 2013 09:53:34pm |
|
Forum:
|
GratefulDead
|
Subject:
|
Re: Was Jerry a Lazy Songwriter? |
Here's something interesting. Number-wise, how does Jerry (and Bob) compare to other rock songwriters? Here are some figures, compiled by me (in a lazy way) from, like, Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers. So they're not exactly trustworthy, but just FYI:
Jimmy Page: 83
Bob Marley: 230
John Lennon (just in the Beatles): 172
Dylan: 458
Michael Jackson: 181
Trey Anastasio (solo credit): 140
Roger Waters: 183
So in the context of the Dead, it could be said Jerry wasn't particularly lazy or unproductive. In the context of other writers, he was arguably lazy or unproductive or, maybe more accurately, just not into songwriting.
Of course the Dead were always very comfortable with covering other people's music and initially made brilliant choices that way. In his own band Jerry definitely went in that direction. It seems to me that to be big on songwriting, you really have to be driven to express your own vision or be all about yourself and putting yourself forward. Jerry seemingly had others ways to express his vision (not just ties, LOL, but musically -- e.g., what he did with songs) and he wasn't basically about putting himself forward compared to other musicians.
Basically I guess the guy just wanted to play. Sometimes new ideas came pouring out, but he didn't care to do it on command. He was the old beatnik who, like Maynard G. Krebs, wanted to avoid WORK! at all costs. So he'd have been OK with being called a lazy songwriter (in the sense of unproductive), even during times when it wasn't really true :-)
|
Poster:
|
snow_and_rain |
Date:
|
February 17, 2013 08:12:57pm |
|
Forum:
|
GratefulDead
|
Subject:
|
Re: Was Jerry a Lazy Songwriter? |
A lot of those guys also took long breaks from touring at one time or another. The Dead was a touring band, and Jerry played with his band between those tours. So maybe lazy isn't the right word. Jerry just had other priorities.
|
Poster:
|
light into ashes |
Date:
|
February 17, 2013 08:18:31am |
|
Forum:
|
GratefulDead
|
Subject:
|
Re: Was Jerry a Lazy Songwriter? |
From a November '74 interview:
"To me, just because of default, I've fallen into the role of being the main writer in the band. And I'm not really a writer, I'm not really a composer. I'm not even really a singer, you know? But these are roles, and since the band has needed them I've fallen into them, just like we all have. But it's been on me to be the guy who's developing the material. And frankly, I'm tired of my own writing, I'm bored with it. Since it's sort of an artificial situation, I'm not an inspired writer. It represents work. I would rather let it happen, in terms of my own creativity, without the pressure of having to deliver a certain amount of material."
And from '81:
GANS: The songs that you write -
GARCIA: Are few and far between! ...
JACKSON: What prevents you from just sitting back for a few months and doing it?
GARCIA: I'm not a forced writer... I wouldn't want to. I'd rather be playing. If I'm going to be creative, there's plenty of time in my day; it doesn't depend on the amount of time - if I had two months, it's possible that I wouldn't write anything... With songs, some of them are real slow-growing, some of them are moments of inspiration. I can't make them happen. Every once in a while one pops out, all of a sudden it's there.
This post was modified by light into ashes on 2013-02-17 16:18:31
TVNews
OpenLibrary